We are a family from the Midwest that pursued God's calling to adopt two children from Ethiopia. What started out as a blog to chronicle our adoption journey has morphed into our family scrapbook. Feel free to follow along as we we live our normal everyday lives, trying to serve Jesus and follow His plans for us.

As for me, I know of nothing else but miracles. - Walt Whitman

Monday, February 11, 2013

Want to Be a Part of the Bigger Picture?

Many of you followed our story of Vitaly, the orphan boy from Ukraine that we hosted over Christmas. And many of you read of the ripple effect that his visit had, and how God was using it all to help create the bigger story. Because he came to us, at least 2 more orphans will find their forever families. Read the story of Garth and Crystal, a family that we met while Vitaly was here, who have decided to adopt a child from Ukraine:

Garth and I have been married for 12 years this June. We have three wonderful children, aged 8, 6 and 4, plus some great relationships with exchange students that we have hosted. I have wanted to adopt my whole life, I have always felt God’s calling for adoption. Whenever I spoke to Garth about it he was never very interested. I prayed to God to change Garth’s heart. I was so convicted of the call, but God wasn’t changing Garth’s mind! There were literally nights in the last five years where I would wake up with tears trailing down my face, climb out of bed, prostrate myself on the floor and PRAY for MY CHILD that I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, was out there. Were they warm, were they fed? This is what was plaguing my mind. Finally, in February 2012, I changed my prayer. I asked for God to remove the urgency I was feeling if it wasn’t what He had for us in that moment. I felt instant peace! It was amazing, no sooner had I finished my prayer than GOD answered. I spend 11 months in peace about it.

Flash forward to January 2013. I was browsing Facebook and saw a picture. It was of a boy that was being hosted through an orphan hosting program. The post said he needed a family. He was older than the baby that I had always envisioned, but it was like God whispered in my soul, “what if?” I decided to ask Garth what he would think about meeting V; I was shocked! Garth was game for it! We spent a wonderful day at the park with V and his host family. When we got home that night, Garth said, “Why not? Let’s go for it!” I was amazed! I had given God the desire of my heart and He gave it back to me!

We called V’s family and told them our plans, they were thrilled. The next day, though, we got a call saying there had been some wires crossed; V was in the process of being adopted. We were so happy for him. I was left wondering if Garth would still be game and HE WAS! We are now in the process of trying to adopt D, who is 7years old. There are no guarantees in Ukraine as to who you will get. We need to send our dossier and request a referral with D. Hopefully that will happen. If it doesn’t, though we are trusting God to use D to bring us closer to who we are supposed to have.

Things have gone very smoothly and quickly so far and we thank God. We could be traveling as soon as mid-May! Wow! Whereas we feel emotionally ready, we know that we have a ways to go to be financially ready; we also know the expenses don’t stop when we come home, so that is why we are trying to raise what support that we can.

Garth and Crystal Sponseller

Would you like to help them bring their child home? Please visit their blog at http://openheartsopenhands.blogspot.com/ to make a donation. Also, Crystal is selling adorable heart-shaped, homemade lotion bars to help fund their adoption. They are $6, and come in cute little tins with the verse "God sets the lonely in families - Psalm 68:6" printed on them in both English and Ukrainian. Visit Crystal's Etsy site here to order.